Adam: This is level 2 of our series, which builds upon what was taught in level 1. Our last lesson focused on the five tones, which built off the first lesson of Level 1. Today we’ll build upon the second lesson of Level 1 which was Greetings. By now you should all be well familiar with 你好, and 大家好. Today we’ll learn a few new greetings depending on the time of day.

Now we first learned the different times of day back in Lesson 19. So let’s do a quick review of them starting with “morning.”

Kirin: 早上.

Adam: Afternoon.

Kirin: 下午.

Adam: Night.

Kirin: 晚上.

Adam: Great, so if you wanted to say “Good morning” how would you do that?

Kirin: 早上好.

Adam: Easy enough. Literally, “morning good.”

Kirin: 早上好.

Adam: Now in Taiwan you’re likely to hear a different version.

Kirin: 早安.

Adam: So there’s a new character there, 安.

Kirin: 安 是第一声，安.

Adam: So 安 here can mean “quiet or peaceful”; so it’s like wishing someone a peaceful morning.

Kirin: 早安.

Adam: Similarly, to wish someone “Good afternoon,” you could say:

Kirin: 午安.

Adam: Again, that’s used in Taiwan whereas in other parts of China you may hear:

Kirin: 下午好.

Adam: Just like in English, “Goodnight” is used when you’re leaving rather than as an initial greeting. So here, too, we’re back to:

Kirin: 晚上好.

Adam: So that again is used in China while

Kirin: 晚安

Adam: is used in Taiwan. Try and figure out which of these the people around you are using and go with that form. Now getting back to Lesson 2, we learned that 再见 is the most common way to say “goodbye.” Let’s listen to a few other versions.

Kirin: 再会.

Adam: The 再 is the same 再 from 再见 while the 会 we’ve also seen before as in “to be able to do something” so we’re basically saying “We’ll see you again.”

Kirin: 再会.

Adam: If you wanted to specifically say “See you next time” you could say:

Kirin: 下次见.

Adam: We’ve seen both these words before. The 下 here is the same 下 from 下午, while the 次 we’ve seen before in lesson 23 in 第一次, as in “first time.” Originally we had explained the meaning of 下 as “after.” It can also be used to mean “next” so here 下次 means “next time.”

Kirin: 下次见.

Adam: For more formal occasions we can use a longer form:

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Adam: Which literally means “We’ll see you next time.”

Kirin: 我们下次再见.

Adam: We’ll now switch our focus a little bit to our Premium podcasts since that’s what we’ll be using from hereon to test whether you understand this material. Our goal in Level 2 is to switch more of the in-lesson dialogue into Chinese which means we’ll need to teach you some of the phrases we’ll be using from hereon. So let’s start with the first one:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: So that may seem like much, but we’ve seen all these words before. Let’s see how much of it you remember.

Kirin: 用 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to use”

Kirin: 翻译 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “translate”

Kirin: 下面的 的是什么意思?

Adam: This one needs to be broken down. We know that 下 can mean next or after. You may also remember the 面 from 前面 and 后面, which we saw back in Lesson 56 meaning “side.” So in this context 下面的 means “the next part.” Let’s see what else you remember.

Kirin: 题目 是什么意思?

Adam: We originally taught 题目 in lesson 36 to mean “subject” or “topic.” It can also be used to mean question or sentence in question. So putting this all together gives us:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Which literally means “Please use Chinese translate the next part sentence.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Which basically means “Please translate the following into Chinese.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的题目.

Adam: Similarly, you could also say:

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的问题.

Adam: 问题, you may remember, from 没问题 in Lesson 19 meaning “no problem.” So 问题 can mean “problem” or “question.” So here the meaning of the sentence is: “Please translate the following question into Chinese.”

Kirin: 请用中文翻译下面的问题.

Adam: Now that we know the word for “question,” let’s look at the word for “answer.”

Kirin: 回答.

Adam: So there are two characters there.

Kirin: 回 是第二声. 答 也是第二声.

Adam: So knowing what we’ve learned so far, how would you say: “Please use Chinese to answer the following question”?

Kirin: 请用中文回答下面的问题.

Adam: So expect to hear these phrases in Chinese being used in the podcast reviews following the regular podcasts, which are available to premium subscribers. Now since this is the second lesson of level two that’s available for free for everyone to listen to. And if you like it, you can consider a premium subscription on our website ChineseLearnOnline.com. So please join us again next time for lesson 63.